85000 Service-Learners

' . /
85,000 Service-Learners
by Robert L. Sigmon
Our high schools, colleges and universities imagine that students learn best
on campuses isolated and separated from the larger communities of people and in­stitutions.
Within the walls, learners are separated in rows, within isolated
classrooms, and rarely allowed to learn cooperatively with others. There is a
limited relationship to the events and stresses and joys of the world beyond the
classroom, and so fantasizing becomes the norm. Most students are aware that what
is learned in such schools is learned only for the sake of the schools. Hence
the feeling of irrelevance of much of our learning.
jl!!:! i!!1lll!!• •ii iiiiiii"Pi;;a'Y£p 11It is the boundary conditions that are all wrong. It is
the division between inside and outside, between insiders and outsiders. We
pretend that students learn inside the school, and not outside in the community.
The written American language is inside the curriculum, the spoken language is
outside. Teachers and administrators are included in the group of educators;
parents, employers, businessmen, ministers are excluded. And so on. The boundaries
are no longer useful to us. In fact, because they are wrongly drawn they cause
us 1• nsol U1D. .1 e pro ble ms ..... . II 1
We need new kinds of educational programs.
16 -:2¥
9~e new effort would be to develop service-learning opportunities for~RI. .t~ e
qgat ,)C{r .
~~ .. , , within government, business, churches, and private organizations.
Students would do their learning within the day-to-day events of a public
organization, an industrial firm, a congregation of worshipers or community organ­izations.
Their learning would be the outgrowth of their own needs for learning
and the needs that were being addressed by the organization or group with whom
they identify.
Five basic principles would guide the service and learning activities of a
student within any of these organizations:
1. There would be at least one well-defined activity for the student to
work at that was regarded as worthwhile by the organization and the
student. The determination of worthwhileness would necessitate careful
negotiation and planning.
2. The learner would identify specific learning objectives for himself
such as:
2
- develop problem-solving skills
- become a better autonomous learner
- learn to make sense of experience
- learn some specific skills
-develop a cultural awareness of one's own values and those of others
- learn about institutional behavior and its influence on the communities
about it.
3. The student service-learner would make a commitment to a Learning Team
of not more than 15 other service-learners. This team would be a major
supportive and feedback group for the learner. It would also be the locus
for significant learning about group process and the nature of supportive
and feedback arrangements for personal learning and public task accomplishment.
4. Each Learning Team would have a Mentor who would serve as initial convener,
personal and group counselor, and assist with all aspects of the service
and learning ventures. The Mentor could be university and/ or public­private
organization based.
5. Each student would be expected to have ample private reflective time to
assess the worth of his own experience for others and himself. The
learning team and Mentor would be key advisors in determining the best
means for the practice of this principle. Written reports, films, program
proposals, dramas, slide shows, poems, plays could be the embodiments of
expressing the fruits of this action and reflection.
Plan of Operation:
Every ¥Oung person between the ages of 16 and 24 would have the opportunity
to spend at least one year in such a service-learning situation. Options for
additional time would be available. In order to initiate such a program on an
incremental basis, it is proposed that by 1976, the following ~umber of positions
be made available on a sustaining basis in North Carolina.
~~ State and local government would provide one placement for every 50
employees as a general rule. 5,500 opportunities would be available in State
and local government alone.
~~Each community of Churches would provide one placement for every 100 members
in a given community. It is estimated that 20,000 positions could be made
available through this network.
~~Each private retail, manufacturing or service industry would provide one
placement for every SO employees. At least 3S,OOO opportunities could be
created in this area.
~~Each public school unit and private school unit in the State would provide
3
one placement for every SO enrolled pupils. 23,000 opportunities are available
here.
~~Many community needs and learning opportunities are broader in scope than
can be met through the organizational f rameworks indicated above . An In­dependent
Center for Community Based Service Learning would be established
to provide a supportive f ramework for these multi-problemed multi-disciplined
approaches . At least 1,SOO opportuniti es would be the aim of this Cent er.
I f the commitments can be obt ained and mechanisms put to work, 8S,OOO young
people each year could potentially be involved in8 creative service-learning
experience. This would be one out of every 10 young people having such an op­portunity
in the State each year.
Our high schools and all post -secondary educational inst i tutions would have
to discover procedures for acknowledging the learning t hat takes place.
Some aspects of this plan are in operation now in North Carolina, but are
reaching less t han one percent of all young people enrolled in our schools and
college s .
Such a program effort could be a direct response to t he problems of t he 40
percent of our young people who are pushed out of high schools and called ndrop­out
s.n Opportuni t i es for t hese energetic and generally bright f olk are extremely
l imited now.
Such a program would pr ovide a needed option for high school graduates who
don't want to move into college, army, or menial job for job' s sake at the age of
18. Anot her st yl e for their activity is a desperat e need.
Evi dence is clear t hat sophomores in college are particularly unsettled. Many
need and seek some breathing r oom away from f ourteen years of the stultifying l ock­step
of classroom pedagogy. This program would meet t heir needs.
College graduates i n the liberal arts can go i nt o t he army, grad school, or
get anxious trying t o decide what t o do with their lives. This pr oblem would be
greatly diminished by young people having options t o explore, learn, and be pro­ductive
as a part of their !!educational experience .n
4
The educational assumptions that are implied in this construct are closely
akin to the thought of Paulo Friere, the Latin American educator now working with
the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
Friere has articulated a concept of conscientization out of his work with
illiterates that has applicability in this country. He defines conscientization
as Hthe process in which men, not as recipients, but as knowing subjects, achieve
a deepening awareness both of the socio---cultural reality which shapes their lives
and of their capacity to transform that reality.H 2
Friere's conscientization concept rests on certain value assumptions:
the equality of all men
their right to knowledge and culture, and
~ their right to criticize their situation and act upon it. 3
It also implies the capacity of all citizens to achieve a reflective outlook
through self-discovery, involvement, and dialogue.
A service-learning program envisioned in these notes and undergirded by the
conscientization concept has no predictable directions. The content of the in­volvements
include personal dignity and worth, criticism and renewal. This content
has some inevitable implications that lead to effective action on behalf of people.
Also implied is a freedom from; paternalism and dependency on prevailing ideologies .
How do we continue to build the environments in this State that allow for our
young people to learn and work in whole ways within the actual social realities
of our 5,000,000 people?
Government and business are slowly and awkwardly taking peep-hole looks at
such programs as proposed herein. Perhaps here is an issue for the Churches to
provide exemplary leadership and support .
1John Bremer, HThe Parkway Program,!! Institute of Open Education, Newton College
of the Sacred Heart . Number 1
2Paulo Friere, HCultural Action and Conscientization,H Harvard Educational Review,
No. 3 {August, 1970), p. 452.
3see Thomas G. Sanders, HThe Paulo Friere Method,!! West Coast South America
Series, Vol. XV, No. 1 {Chile) June, 1968.
Governor Robert Scott of North Carolina pointed out the value of service­learning
internships as a method of training potential leaders when he said at
the Southern Governors' Conference in 1970:
"I want very much for us to provide leadership in developing constructive
opportunities for college students and faculty to contribute more directly to
programs of economic and governmental improvement in the South ..... I would like
to see the establishment of a network of programs so that we can extend the op­portunities
for service learning to a much greater number of students and make
more effective use of the energy and talents of these young people in helping their
region achieve a higher quality of life. This is one approach to making our
collegiate curricula more meaningful to students. It is also a promising way to
attract more able students into public service careers."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
11The primary goal of the service-learning concept is providing persons the
opportunities wherein service life style can be nurtured. Service connotes an
attitude of or an approach to life which is characterized by: cooperative v .
competitive life style; facilitative v. exploitative; humanistic v. materialistic;
concern for the self and the other because of the realization that they are but
one and the same ..•. ; honesty, openness, genuineness; accepting; unconditional
regard for human worth. The second priority . .... is the development of ability
to learn from experience. A third priority is to offer each person the opportu­nity
to learn about human nature, about cultural values and about his personal
commitments to such values."
From a paper by Noel Dunivant, Jr., former director of the Winston-Salem
Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP), September, 1970.

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